


Pretend

by chrissy2



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Escapism, Other, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-12 05:55:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13541145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrissy2/pseuds/chrissy2
Summary: A lot of the days at the mansion are weary and dreary and most of the nights are a restless hell.





	Pretend

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing and get no money.

**I**

Peter really had been hard on Ed.

In the 2000s, the doctors would say they were too young and their brains were underdeveloped and that they were too hormonally-imbalanced to cope like adults, which was true. But in those times, it was common to die very young and the age of hardship and work and taxes was much, much lower. Some were married at ages that would make the twenty-first century go dizzy and faint from disbelief.

(Even Peter and Ed were too young for the world of men. In the distant future, the whole concept of toxic masculinity would be called "patriarchy" by the feminists, that it was a harmful concept for everyone. Naturally, it seemed ridiculous at first, but so did all the other movements before their time. Man at one point thought the Divine Right of Kings, as questionable and as ridiculous as it was, would never fall.)

 

**II**

A lot of the days at Professor Kirke's mansion were rainy and dreary and nearly every night was a restless hell, especially in the beginning.

Peter's first reaction to Edmund screaming in his sleep and waking up in dripping cold sweat was not the best. Ed thought of their dad dying in battle and their mum being bombed away along with their home so much that the visuals terrorized his dreams and he was certain it was going to happen in real life. He didn't understand why the world was the way it was and did not ask to be born. 

One evening, Peter had sensed that Ed had been taking an awfully long time in the bath and ran in just in time to find him laying under, his back flat on the floor of the tub. Peter reached through and pulled his younger to the surface.

Edmund coughed: "What was that for?"

"Why were you underwater?"

"I just like the feel of it is all."

 

**III**

The situation of the mansion was very odd to the children. Thinking about the eccentricities at the very least distracted them from the nightmares and war. For an unmarried and childless man, Professor Kirke had a rather large house full of seemingly useless rooms. And for an easy-going, highly imaginative and overall swell man such as the Professor Kirke, he had a very shrewd housekeeper. Her presence did not exactly ease their angst and dread. Perhaps that was how she herself coped with the war.

 

**VI**

Edmund screamed and sweated at night. Peter yelled at Edmund. Susan criticized Peter. And Lucy's mind was separated from the situation almost entirely, flying away to anywhere and any time period other than there. One day, she started hiding from the three older siblings and they would always find her in a different place. As said, it was a strangely-large mansion.

It was annoying to Peter, Susan, and Edmund at first, but they eventually grew to enjoy the hide-and-seek. One time, she was found in the upstairs wardrobe in one of her hiding games, fast asleep. The wardrobe was as strange as the mansion and the strange man and shrewd housekeeper living there. It was nearly as big as a washroom and contained fur coats that had never been worn. But the designs on the wood were beautiful, and had a world of their own - a world of talking beasts and untainted nature and wars that were glorious, where the Good always won and no one really died.

 

**V**

Peter started playing the role of a knight to propel Lucy's fantasy and Susan started visiting the library more often. She went from a lover of dull realism to fantasy, although she would deny it if you ever caught her in the act of doing anything that wasn't studying. 

Peter: "Didn't take you for a romantic."

Susan: "I'm not. I was curious."

Peter: "You used to be."

Susan: "I'm just trying to be realistic."

Peter: "No, you're just trying to be smart."

 

**VI**

The fantasies carried on and there was a brawl in the middle. Edmund had been particularly irritable that day, letting out a growl when Peter and Lucy were pretending yet again, rough housing on the carpet as a knight and his little princess fighting a White Witch.

_**Stop it.** _

Lucy had been hurt by the outburst and Peter demanded that Edmund apologize.

Of course, Edmund doesn't. That wasn't surprising. What was surprising was him choosing to bolt out the door in the ice-cold rain.

 

**VII**

The professor was probably their saving grace. _I do hate grown-ups and what they do to children._ (He often hinted at what it had done to the dream-denier Susan and what the institutions had done to Edmund to make him pale and always scowling.) The old man put on his rain coat and headed for the door. He himself once explained that his parents died when he was young and the experiences to further his miseries were not taken seriously by the adults in his life.

After a few minutes, Peter glanced out the window to find the two talking under a tree, and Edmund came back in to keep from catching a cold.


End file.
